Your feet may be the last place on your body you care for, but it is among the most important body parts since they must carry all your weight when standing or walking. Routinely taking care of your feet can prevent problems and help your feet stay healthy for a lifetime.
Live A Healthy Lifestyle
Your lifestyle choices can make your feet healthier or be a cause for problems. Eating a healthy diet that works well for your metabolic and fitness goals is the first step. There are many variations of a healthy diet and it depends on your specific beliefs. For example, you might find a low-carb, balanced, or whole foods approach to your diet is optimal for keeping your weight reasonable and optimizing your performance. The goals related to your foot health include achieving a healthy body weight to avoid excess pressure on your feet and keeping your blood glucose within a healthy range. Uncontrolled and long-standing type 2 diabetes is the major cause of nerve damage in the feet and preventable amputations.
Choose Comfort Over Fashion
Trends in shoes change from year to year, but many of these trends are unrealistic because the shoes may not conform to the normal shape of the foot and can cause significant pain. When you buy a pair of shoes, opt for comfort over trends. You can often find shoes that are more comfortable and easier to walk in that match your outfit, work for a special event, or are similar to other trendy styles. Your shoes for daily wear should have a short heel and not be flat. You need a little support to maintain the structures of your feet, but heels often place your feet at an unnatural angle, which forces you to place more pressure on the balls of your feet. Avoid any shoe with a narrow toe box, since this creates pressure on your toes. Over time, this can lead to bunions.
Learn Proper Foot Care
Learning how to take care of your feet, such as proper nail trimmings and removal of dead skin, will save you money over going to a salon, but it will ensure you are using tools that are sanitary. Since you cannot always be sure that your next pedicure is performed with tools and foot tubs that have been sterilized, it is best to avoid the infection risk. Trimming your toe nails requires you to trim straight across and not rounding the edges. You can use a file to lightly round the corners if they are sharp, but a square toe nail is the safest to prevent ingrown nails.
Keeping your feet smooth can also be a challenge. Instead of using a pumice stone or other abrasive tools, look for products designed to slowly soften dead skin. Some of the products are marketed as disposable booties with fruit enzymes and other ingredients. You wear the booties on your feet for an allocated time and over the next few days, the dead skin eventually peels away. This is less likely to cause irritation or injuries than aggressively scrubbing your feet. Another option is a foot scrub.
Keeping your feet healthy and happy means being proactive to reduce injury and illness that can cause pain or significant foot problems. Contact a clinic, like Foot & Ankle Care Center PA, for more help.
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